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Beefsteak Pie

A savory pie made with beef, onions, potatoes, and a buttery crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteak Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the steak into strips 1.5 inches long and 1 inch wide.

  2. Place the strips in a saucepan, cover with boiling water, add the sliced onion, and simmer until the meat is tender.

  3. Remove the meat and discard the onion.

  4. Add the sliced potatoes to the liquid and parboil for 6 minutes, then remove the potatoes.

  5. Measure the liquid and add enough boiling water to make 1 pint, then add the salt and pepper.

  6. Cream the butter and flour together, add to the liquid, and cook for 5 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a pudding dish, layer half the potatoes, then the meat, and top with the remaining potatoes.

  2. Pour enough gravy over the contents to cover completely.

  3. When cool, cover with a crust made from the flour, butter, lard, baking powder, and enough milk to form a soft dough.

  4. Roll out the dough to ¼ inch thick and cover the pudding dish.

  5. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Provides the meat, which becomes tender through long simmering in the liquid.
Potatoes
Form the layered base and absorb gravy, adding body and starch to the pie.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into gravy and also forms the crust with the fats.
Butter
Adds richness to the gravy and fat to the crust for a tender, flaky texture.
Lard
Adds fat to the crust, helping it stay tender and flaky.
Baking powder
Lifts the crust so it bakes lighter rather than dense.

The step that matters

Cooking the gravy before assembly. Cooking the butter and flour mixture for the full five minutes cooks out the raw flour taste and fully thickens the liquid, so the gravy sets properly rather than staying thin or pasty under the crust.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, potato, pepper, milk):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, potato, pepper, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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